THIS INVENTION relates to the weaving of textile formed of terry cloth such as towels and the like.
In order to apply a pattern to terry cloth, there are several limitations upon the manner in which the pattern can be applied. The principal reason for this difficulty relates to the nature of the terry cloth which by its nature does not lend itself to a detailed pattern. Generally, in the past, a pattern has been applied to items formed of terry cloths such as a towel by weaving a pattern into the cloth. Though proposals have been made in the past for printing patterns onto towels and other terry cloth items, these methods have-generally been unsatisfactory for several reasons. One of the principle reasons comprises the textured characteristic of the terry cloth which prevents a detailed and distinct pattern being printed onto the towel.
In order to achieve an improved definition in design reproduction, proposals have been made to shear the terry loops from the cloth, however this is costly arid can substantially detract from the principal function of the towel which is to absorb and store moisture. Another proposal for applying printed or relief patterns to towels has comprised utilising a panel which may comprise a header panel at one or both ends of the towel and weaving into that panel a decorative pattern. There have also been proposals to apply printed or relief patterns to the panels.
It is however, not generally possible to apply a printed pattern directly onto the header panel of a towel since the dyes used in the printing process are washed from the cotton fibre in normal use of the towel. To date, the only successful means of providing a printed header panel has generally comprised the application of a separate piece of printed fabric over the towel in the region of the header panel. This technique however suffers from the difficulty that the separate piece of material is of a different nature to the terry cloth of which the towel is formed and therefore can have differing shrinkage characteristics to the remainder of the towel. Furthermore, the stitching retaining the separate piece of fabric to the towel can be damaged causing the separate piece to be separated from the towel resulting in a rapid deterioration of the appearance of the towel.
In situations where the pattern is three dimensional, it has been the practice to shear the terry loops from the cloth to form the pattern. However, this as indicated above, is costly and detracts from the absorption characteristics of the towel. Other methods have included use of a specialised weaving technique to achieve the relief pattern however, this can add significantly to the cost of the towel.
It is an object of this invention to provide a technique whereby a pattern can be applied to a panel of a item formed of terry cloth whereby the pattern is stable.